After 74 days at airport, stranded footballer shifted to hotel

Thanks to help from Yuva Sena, the youth wing of the Shiv Sena, he has shifted to a local hotel, waiting for airlines to resume operations so that he could fly home.

Mumbai: Much like Tom Hank's character in the Hollywood film "The Terminal", 23-year-old Ghanaian footballer Randy Juan Muller spent 74 days at the Mumbai airport after being stranded due to lockdown.

Now, thanks to help from Yuva Sena, the youth wing of the Shiv Sena, he has shifted to a local hotel, waiting for airlines to resume operations so that he could fly home.

On Saturday, Muller, who used to play for a club in Kerala, thanked Maharashtra tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray and Yuva Sena officer-bearer Rahul Kanal for their help.

"Thank you Aaditya Thackeray, Rahul Kanal. Thank you very very so much. I appreciate what you have done. Salute," he said.

Muller, a Ghana national who played for Kerala- based football club, was scheduled to fly home by Kenya Airways flight when lockdown for coronavirus was announced and he found himself high and dry at the Mumbai airport.

"He would spend his time at the airport's fancy artificial gardens and somehow buy food from stalls and passed his time with the airport staff. Muller told me the airport staff was very helpful," Kanal said.

A security officer at the airport gave him mobile phone to call his family back home.

Randy Juan Muller

A Twitter user brought the footballer's plight to the notice of Aaditya Thackeray. Kanal then reached out to Muller and helped him move into a hotel.

Muller cried with happiness when he met him at the airport, Kanal tweeted.

"Have no words to salute his willpower and fight for survival in such circumstances at this age," he added.

An official at the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) said the footballer was provided with all the help.

"All the personnel at the airport including from MIAL and CISF gave him every possible help during his stay at the airport. Besides food, he was also allowed to use the airport WiFi network to make calls. Airport staff would recharge his phone at their own expense," the official said.

Fans of Steven Spielberg's 2004 film, which is about a man stranded at a US airport after being denied entry into the country and a military coup back home, can hope that Muller's story will inspire Bollywood scriptwriters one day.